


We Just Have Now

by crybaby4life



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Alexandria Safe-Zone, Awkward First Times, F/M, Fingering, First Time, Hand Jobs, Loss of Virginity, Top Ron Anderson, and hint at future events ;), brief angst, cuz it's het, just a brief interaction, no Ron story would be complete without a little Carl, no actual Ron/Carl, porn with the tiniest bit of plot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-17
Updated: 2017-01-17
Packaged: 2018-09-18 02:59:54
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9363926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crybaby4life/pseuds/crybaby4life
Summary: Ron and JJ (Original Female Character) share an intimate afternoon together amid the threat of the walker herd in season 6.





	

**Author's Note:**

> JJ basically replaces Enid. Nothing really against Enid, it just seems like she never really liked Ron that much, so I don't see her going for the things that happen in this story lol. ;)
> 
> Also, I only tagged it as Ron/Carl because I don't think it's great how AO3 sorts by characters, so I didn't think anyone would see it otherwise. Tell me if that's super annoying and I'll totally change it. :)

6x05  
_Now_

The sound of all the walkers snarling together outside the walls is gloomy, to say the least. It’s the only noise besides the _chinks_ made as Ron idly drives his knife into the ground and pulls it out again.

He and JJ are resting on the grass somewhere near the wall in Alexandria. It took a while ever since she first walked through those gates to the town, but slowly they started hanging out more and more often. He can remember how terrified she looked that day, almost like a ghost, her long blonde hair frayed and the skin of her slim body a sickly pale white. She had told him her full name once, Jane something Stevens; Ron never quite caught her middle name. It was clear that she had been through a lot, she spoke so softly and personal questions seemed to rattle her, so Ron never asked a second time.

He had given up on any idea of dating her soon after she arrived. She was so shaken from whatever she had seen out there on the road that she kept to herself for a long time, but one day she started to emerge. She, Ron and Mikey had become friends, hanging together comfortably even if she rarely spoke much. Then, more and more, it became mostly her and Ron spending time together. He’s never felt awkard around her, even when she was hard to get to know, Ron discovered quickly that she seemed to genuinely listen to him whenever he ventured to go off about whatever was on his mind that day. And she was there for him more than he could’ve asked when his father died, was the sympathetic ear for him to lean on, and the friend to just sit in silence with.

Today’s no different. Even though everything’s spiraling down around him, with the herd of walkers outside the wall, the new people who he feels are intruding on his life and have stolen his father from him, JJ’s still here, sitting just a few feet away as he rests against the white fence behind him.

“So, how long do you think we have, huh? A day? Two, tops?” he asks. He scoffs darkly at the grass, then looks up at JJ. She stares back at him but doesn’t respond. She’s got her knees clutched to her chest and is wearing a solemn expression.

He slowly turns back to his knife, and plucks it out of the ground. “I mean, let’s face it, we’re pretty much doomed, right?” he says morosely, spinning the knife in his hands. “Even with this new group here who thinks they’re the shit.” He mumbles the last part, saying it more to himself than anyone else. He looks off and towards the wall.

JJ still doesn’t say anything, just studies the grass and earth in contemplation. She’s got her own knife in her right hand, and is twirling it against her pant leg.

He scoffs again sardonically, still staring off into the distance and then says, “Is it pathetic that the only thing I can think about is the fact that I’m gonna die a virgin?”

After a moment lost in his own head, he takes a peek at JJ and then quickly shakes his head at the ground and backpedals. “I-I didn’t mean that as any sort of come on, I just…” He stares at the dirt and his words seem genuine. “…Sorry,” he adds. His skin is starting to glisten with beads of summer sweat, paled by stress for days now.

She just stares for a second and then says, from her place with her chin resting on her arms, “I would have sex with you.”

“What? Are you serious?” He turns up from the ground to look at JJ’s face.

“I mean, if you are,” she says, now just barely forming a small, awkward smile.

He looks forward as he answers. “Uh, yeah, I mean--” He turns back to her. “What, like, now?”

JJ’s lips are tight with her shy smile, but she shrugs. “Sure. Why not?” Her voice is timid, but sure-sounding.

“Uh, okay,” Ron says, fiddling with the knife in his hand.

“Um, we should probably have a…condom?” she mentions, still balled up holding her legs.

Ron nods. “Oh, right, of course, um…” he peeks in her direction, “I’ll just, uh, go get one from the storeroom?”

JJ nods, still smiling calmly, while he reaches nervously to put his knife back in its holster and then fumbles to his feet.

“Okay, so I’ll, uh, meet you back here.” JJ nods again while scooting back across the grass to rest against the fence. “Okay, be right back,” Ron says, breathless and wiping at his pants anxiously, and then he’s left her curled up on the grass and grinning to make his way through the town and past the houses to the storeroom.

He’s breathless the whole way over there, and can’t stop fidgeting with his hands, and prays he doesn’t run into anyone he’ll have to talk to. Soon he’s made it to the storeroom, and as he enters, by some stroke of luck, it’s empty. 

“Shit, shit, shit,” he curses under his breath as he walks the shelves, trying to remember where they keep the condoms and other health stuff.

Finally he finds them and grabs one, now whispering, “fuck, fuck.” After a moment of deliberating, he grabs a second one and then is just shoving them in his back pocket when the door starts opening. In come Aaron and Eric while Ron tries to hastily slide away from the incriminating location he’s stopped at.

“Hi, Ron,” Aaron says, lifting his hand politely as Ron scuttles by.

“Hey, guys,” Ron replies flusteredly. They both look at him quizzically, confused at his demeanor, but Ron can’t bring himself to care as he makes a beeline for the front door.

He’s almost home-free, running into no one as he hurries down the street, but then just as he’s about halfway there Carl comes rounding the corner. Ron tries to just give an obligatory wave and keep on going, but Carl stops him.

“Hey man, I’ve been looking for you, uh--” Carl looks over Ron and his nervous attitude and furrows his eyebrows, “how are you doing?”

“I’m fine, Carl,” Ron says curtly. “I got somewhere to be.” He tries to side-step around, but Carl stops him again.

“Okay, okay, I just…” Carl glances around and sighs before pursing his lips and taking a serious look at Ron. “I just think we should talk sometime, you know? I think there are things we need to work out.”

“Whatever, sure, Carl,” Ron says indignantly. “But I can’t talk now, okay?”

“Okay, but tonight, maybe?” Carl calls to a Ron who’s already taken a few steps away. 

“Whatever, Carl,” Ron calls back.

“Okay, I’ll swing by your place, okay?” Carl yells as Ron continues on his way. Ron waves him off and leaves a sighing and dissatisfied Carl, who slips his hands into his pockets and turns away.

Finally, after those few short minutes that seemed like a whole hour, Ron makes it back to where he left her, rounding the white fence. 

JJ’s standing and leaning against it now, holding the wooden handle of her knife and tapping it lightly against her leg.

“Hey,” Ron greets her, short of breath and hurrying to a stop. 

She smiles and steps off the fence when she sees him.

“Sorry that took so long,” he says, still catching his breath.

JJ shakes her head kindly, blonde locks catching in the breeze. “Um, can we go somewhere else?” she asks, gesturing with a thumb.

“Uh, sure, where do you wanna go? We could, uh, go to my place? My mom should be out.” Ron’s body swivels as he points towards the options. “Or we could check out one of these houses, I guess.”

JJ nods at the last suggestion. “Yeah, let’s do that,” she says as she holsters her knife.

“Okay,” Ron says under his breath, and then he starts walking, leading the way as JJ follows to one of the collection of empty houses.

There’s no words as they trudge to the nearest front door, Ron marching ahead up the walkway and front steps with her behind him. Once he’s got a hand on the handle, he turns back for affirmation, and when JJ just gives him that small smile, he opens the door with a deep breath.

Inside, there’s the typical wooden floors of Alexandria, leading to a staircase on the right and a living area on the left. As they step into the house, it’s clear that it’s not lived in; there’s barely any furniture and by marks on the floor, it looks like a lot of it might have been moved out to different homes.

Ron sighs and comes to a stop. “You wanna see if there’s a bedroom? Might not be furniture, but we could look.”

“Couch should be fine, right?” JJ asks, motioning towards the sparse living space behind them.

Ron turns to look at what JJ’s talking about as she walks over to the cream-colored three-cushioned sofa on the empty floor. “Yeah,” he whispers while slowly starting to follow her, nervously running a hand through his hair now that he’s keyed into the fact that he’s been sweating.

She stops, standing in front of the couch, and turns to face him when he approaches. There’s a second where they just kind of stand, staring at each other from a few feet away, catching their breaths and waiting awkwardly. Ron doesn’t know how the hell to begin, but he figures that asking, “Ca-can I kiss you?” might be an okay place to start.

JJ breaks a grin and nods, so he chuckles in relief and whispers, “Okay.” He encloses the distance between them and brings a hand to her pale white cheek. Her light green eyes glance up and down his face as he leans in to her pink lips.

He exhales deeply through his nose when they connect, dry lips pressing against dry lips. He doesn’t really know what he’s doing, but after a few seconds, he tries to nudge her mouth open, by pushing forward and parting his own.

When he pulls back for a moment, he asks, “Have you ever kissed a guy before?”

“Yeah,” she whispers, her hand now squeezing the jean jacket of his outstretched arm. “But not since fourth grade.”

“Are you serious?” he asks through a laugh.

“ _Yeah,”_ JJ insists, laughing back and sliding her hand up to his shoulder.

He’s still chuckling when he moves forward to kiss her again. 

They kiss a bit longer this time. His lips are bigger than hers, and he uses that to his advantage to pry hers apart, and then they’re breathing into each other while he runs his tongue across hers.

There’s still some awkward tension when they pull apart again. But, with her green eyes nervously on his, JJ brings her hands to the topmost button of her light pink, long-sleeved button down. His hand has slid down to rest on her shoulder and it stays there while, with eyes wide, he watches as she undoes her shirt.

The pink material parts against her creamy skin as her hands make their way down, her taking deep breaths the entire time. When it’s done, she looks down to shift the shirt off with a light blush on her face. She reveals a white lace bra framing her small, but shapely breasts as she lets the Oxford drop to the floor.

Deciding not to leave her alone, Ron quickly shrugs off his own jean jacket, and then struggles to pull off the thin, dark hoodie beneath it. Once he’s just standing there in his white tee, brown hair disheveled from how fast he pulled off the hoodie, he sees that she’s reaching back for the clasp of her bra.

They make eye contact again and JJ hesitates, before decidedly unhooking it, pulling the straps down her arms, and then discarding the lacy fabric to the side.

Ron’s eyes dart all over her torso, and she can hear how much faster his breathing is getting just from looking at her. It makes her blood run warm, and puts a heat deep in her stomach that she’s never felt before.

Tentatively, she reaches out to one of his dangling hands and brings it up. Placing it just below her ribcage, she says, “You can…” before sliding it upwards a bit and then letting go. Ron looks almost more nervous than she is, still staring wide and his mouth gaping open. But after swallowing deeply, he lets himself slide his hand up further, until he grips her gently in his palm. He can feel her nipple underneath his skin, and for a minute he just lets himself stare in amazement. JJ watches the expression on his face the whole time, until he comes back up to lean into her again, the corners of both their lips turning up.

They kiss again, getting deeper, breathing harder. Ron strokes his hand up and across her bare skin and then down to the side of her waist. After another couple moments, he pulls back, remembering that he still has his T-shirt on, and as he lifts it up and over his head, she starts backing them up, tugging at his arms. “Should we…?” she asks, gesturing behind them to the couch.

Tossing his T-shirt to the side, Ron follows JJ to the couch and quickly crawls on top of her once she’s laid down across it, both of them topless now and their jean-clad legs tangling in each other’s. He struggles on his elbows finding a steady position hovering over her, the bones of his skinny torso poking out. Then he drops down to her again and they continue where they left off, experimenting with pressing their lips against each other’s. JJ’s hands timidly come up sometimes to rest on the pale olive-toned skin of his arms or shoulders, and he keeps exploring her naked chest, running his fingers across her more liberally now, occasionally latching onto and gently squeezing one of her breasts.

His breathing has escalated and is heavy and intense once he pulls off of her mouth. After a second, he shakily leans in to her neck. She turns her head, breathing deep and blinking slow. But after only a couple of soft kisses, he ducks his head down and then suddenly backs off her with a loud groan. “Oh, God,” he grits out, clutching his crotch and falling back to the unused cushion. Sitting there, he shades his eyes with his hand, and after a moment of labored breathing, says, “Sorry…”, a deep red tint covering most of his face and trailing down his neck.

JJ sits up onto her elbows once the surprise of his movements wears off, and then shakes her head and says softly, “That’s okay.” She hesitates, watching him hide under his hand trying to collect himself, not quite sure what to say. “Is it too fast?” she finally asks.

He scoffs from his place tucked into the corner of the couch. “Not exactly…” he mutters, making no move to take his hand away from his face. His chest has finally seemed to calm down to a steady rate. She decides to sit up onto her knees and crawl towards him a bit. “What if I…touched you?” she asks. His hand drops then, to clutch at the armrest. She can see the shame on his face. “You don’t have to do that,” he says, not looking at her. She inches closer. “But…if I want to?” she asks, getting close enough now that her knees are touching his thighs and she’s hovering over him. He looks up at her and he’s got those wide blue eyes again and his plump lips are parted and JJ reaches down for the button of his jeans.

He blinks hard and swallows as she opens the button and undoes the zipper. She shrugs down the top of the jeans as much as she can before reaching into his boxers.

She leans her chest across his, tucking her head towards his neck as she feels him, skating over his pubic hair, and then grips his shaft. He takes a sharp inhale and she sees his chest heave upward out of the corner of her eye. It’s hotter to the touch than she expected, and also more pliant, as she starts experimentally sliding her hand up and down.

“Oh, my God,” he reacts already, leaning his head back into the couch. His body jerks up into her hand, startling her. But she reaches to grab onto his shoulder with her other hand, and shifts on her knees as she grips him tighter. 

Realizing she can pull him out of his boxers, she does, and then tries to get into a steady rhythm. He breathes deeply and shakily, holding onto the armrest, and when she peeks at him she can see him squeezing his eyes open and closed.

“Is it okay?” JJ whispers, working his skin in her hand. He laughs breathlessly. “Y-yeah,” he stutters. She chuckles herself, and can’t help but smile at how easy it seems for her to gain this much control over him. She originally felt more comfortable draped across his chest, slightly less exposed. But now she decides to pull back a little, to look at his face.

“Faster?” she asks, to which he nods, his brown hair swishing. “Y-yes.” It seems to have an immediate effect when she picks up the pace, because he moans loudly, “ _Ohh_ ,” and grunts out, “I-I’m gonna come.”

JJ watches in fascination as he struggles back against the couch, and tries to concentrate on pulling down with her hand and squeezing him again and again. He releases into her palm with a breathy groan.

She pulls her hand back and stares at his sweat-coated face while he comes down, kneeling back from his shoulder and giving him some space. “Better?” she asks while his breathing slows. He nods with a relaxed grin. “Much better,” he responds.

“Good,” she chuckles. “Um, I don’t know what to do with the-” she says, looking down at her hand.

“Oh, right. Uh-” Ron says, his face still red from his orgasm. He reaches around for his pockets, and then pulls out a cloth from underneath him. “Here,” he says as he reaches for her hand and wipes the sperm off her fingers. She smirks. “Thanks,” she says while he moves to shove the cloth back in his pocket.

“Is it okay if I take off my pants?” he asks then, wiping at his forehead. “It’s hot in here.”

“Yeah. Of course,” she says, backing up farther on the couch. She notices that he’s tucked himself back into his boxers while he pulls off his jeans.

Nervousness comes back to her when she considers taking off her own pants, but she decides to anyway, hands shaking when she reaches for the button. 

He fumbles his khaki jeans off, lets them drop into a pile on the floor, and then sits back up onto the couch, all while JJ slowly peels off her own. He watches her quietly, getting into position again, crawling up on a knee.

It’s clear that he’s ready to climb back on top of her, so once her pants are off, JJ lets him, scooting back and lying down while he moves forward until he’s hovering over her, propped up on his hands. He takes a second to get comfortable, while she tries to calm herself with deep breaths. He stares down her body for a second, and then looks at her with a serious expression. “You really are gorgeous,” he says hesitantly. “You know that, right?” She just blushes, and then smiles faintly, and fights the urge to turn her head away. He shifts again, nervous himself, and looks down.

“Um, do you want me to prepare you?” he asks quietly. “Like—t-touch you?”

“Yeah, I guess,” she breathes.

“Are you sure?” he asks.

She starts nodding her head, and then manages to say more emphatically, “Yeah, I’m sure.”

“Okay,” he whispers. His hand quakily reaches for the top hem of her panties. “Can I?” he asks, almost reverently.

She nods again, heat pooling in her cheeks. He carefully pulls the panties away from her body, and then slides them down her legs, and she helps to kick them off. When he comes back up, there’s an almost scared look on his face as well, as he shifts gently, slotting a knee in between hers. He sits there, staring down at her form in front of him, and then, clearing his throat, brings a hand to her waist.

He strokes down her hip, running his thumb across the crease at the top of her leg, to which she shudders, and keeps moving down her thigh, eyes darting back and forth to watch her chest and her face as she breathes. When he pulls away, he decides not to keep them both in suspense any longer, and so, with a deep breath and a timid hand, he touches her with two fingers, in between her legs.

She reacts immediately, gasping and arching her head back. “Is it okay?” he asks, not taking his hand away. She nods quickly, and whispers, “Yeah.” Slowly he starts feeling her, stroking his fingers up and down. She takes loud breaths, her chest pushing in and out, and he watches her clutch at the couch, her hands on either side of her.

He starts pressing deeper, circling downwards. “It feels okay?” he asks again. “Yeah, it-” JJ struggles to find her voice. “It feels good,” she finally says, nodding. As he keeps feeling her folds, she can’t help her hips bucking up once, encouraging his middle finger down lower towards her entrance. After a few more seconds of him gradually spreading her apart, it seems like maybe he’s having a bit of trouble finding it, so subtly, she bucks her hips again, getting him to the right place.

Now that he’s finally there, he inches her thighs further apart, putting both of his legs in between hers. She looks at his sweaty face, still covered in anxiousness and concentration. Taking a glance downwards, she sees that his erection is already fully tenting his boxers again.

Slowly, he starts pushing a finger inside her. JJ lays her head back and her breathing gets more shallow, as she adjusts to the feeling of being invaded by someone else. He takes a deep breath, too, swallowing a rush of saliva at how tightly her muscle grips him. 

He probes gently at first, but then starts sliding deeper, the ridges of her walls catching around him. “Does it feel okay?” he asks her. She just nods this time. He waits for her demeanor to change, back to how it was before, when he was just touching her. But it seems to stay the same, the light breathing and her trying to get used to it.

He keeps going though, and eventually, after quickening the pace for a while, it seems to start coming back. She shifts around his finger, grabs onto the couch, and her back begins curving ever so slightly. When he asks, “Do you want another finger?”, her nod seems more fervent.

He pushes the two fingers past her outer ring, and then gets right back into the rhythm. Now he’s got _her_ starting to sweat, strands of her blonde hair sticking to the sides of her face. He swiftly starts moving harder, and hears her breathing get louder in response, and after another minute can see her fighting the urge to crane her head back. 

He keeps up a steady pace, the heat between his own legs growing more insistent all the time. She seems to be taking two fingers pretty well, loosening up from the work he’s doing, so not too much later, he decides to ask, “Do you want a third?”

After a brief hesitation, she nods again, and almost immediately after he adds it, she seems to let go of her control. Her hips start jerking up to meet his hand and she tilts her head back, her chest curving in front of him. Almost shamefully, she reaches down with her own hand to rub at her neglected clit. He gently replaces her hand with his, and takes over for her, kneading her with the pads of his fingers.

Finally he has small moans leaving JJ’s pink lips, and a few moments later, through her breathless arousal, she says, “I-I think I’m close.”

Ron stops, pulling out his fingers, and leaves JJ panting and unfinished to go to his pants on the floor and get the condom. She turns to watch him, huffing for breath, as he pulls it from his pocket and comes back to kneel in between her spread legs again.

She lies back while he takes his hardness out of his boxers and starts opening the condom. She’s a little disappointed at having to come down so quickly after almost getting there, but she props herself onto her elbows and waits patiently for him to roll the condom onto himself and get settled between her legs.

He touches her with his hand again to remind himself where it is before he lines his member up with her entrance, making her shudder. And then he looks at her with heavy eyes and a blushed face. “Ready?” he asks. She nods, her mouth parted and her light blonde hair spilling behind her.

He starts pushing in, just barely, propping his hands on either side of her waist, taking deep breaths. He pauses, about an inch or two in, at a look on her face.

“Is it okay? Does it hurt?” he asks.

“A little…” she says.

“Do you want me to pull out?”

“No.” She shakes her head. “Could you just, move back and forth a bit?…Slowly?” she adds.

“Yeah,” he breathes through his restraining efforts. He does as she requests, pulling back and pushing forward with a bright-red face, as she lies back. “Does it feel any better?” he asks after a moment.

“Yeah,” she nods, looking up at him. “You could go a little… further?”

“Okay,” he whispers, sliding more of himself inside but still holding tight to his control. He does it again, pushing in and out gingerly, and her eyes and her body seem to begin to relax. She reaches up and puts her hands lightly on his arms. 

“Further?” he asks, and she nods, so he slides in more, and she takes a heavy breath, feeling him pretty deep inside her. He adjusts on his hands, slipping up closer to her shoulders. 

“You could go now,” she says to him. “Just…slow.”

“Got it,” he says, with a nod of the head and leaning in closer to her. She wraps a hand around the back of one of his shoulders and strokes the other up to the top of his arm as he starts cautiously thrusting into her.

He grunts, more with the effort of holding back than the sensation of JJ’s tightness gripping him, and dives a little closer to her neck with every push, his light brown hair dangling. She breathes in sharply with every thrust, which gives way to tiny moans when he starts shoving a little more forcefully.

They pant together for a few more moments before he asks in her ear, “You’re still doing good, right? Could I speed up now?”

“Yeah,” she whispers back to him fervently, slipping her arms further around his shoulders and splaying a hand across his back. 

The sound he makes is almost a deep whine as he picks up the pace inside her, finally satiating the desire for friction around his cock. Her breaths almost become gasps as she tilts her head back just to bring it down again.

“Faster, Ron,” she says a few seconds later. He groans at the use of his name, and also the statement in general, and then complies with her command, reaching an even quicker rate than before. She starts using her own hips now, meeting some of his thrusts with one of hers.

After a minute, though, with a frustrated moan, he slows and then comes to a pause inside her. “I-I just need to stop for a second,” he breathes hastily.

“Okay,” she responds, stilling her hips, “okay.”

They catch their breath together as he leans up to look at her face, readjusting on his hands. They glance at each other, but they’re both straight-lipped with desire at this point, red and sweating.

Finally, he’s ready to continue. “Okay, I’m good,” he says. “Harder?” he asks pointedly, through a thick voice. 

“Yes,” she nods, and his “Ohh-kay,” turns into another drawn-out groan, full of arousal.

He works up into his old rhythm more swiftly this time, and then starts thrusting even faster. He feels her tighten her hold around his neck, but he stays above her shoulder, occasionally glancing at her eyes. Soon he has her breathing in short bursts again like before, squeezing her eyes shut and opening them.

He’s filled with relief when she starts leaning her head back into the couch and says, “I’m almost there.” He wills himself to last and puts all his focus on delivering hard, deliberate thrusts.

It seems to work because two whimpers and a moan later, JJ comes, pushing her body up into his and shuddering. Her muscles clenching him deeper and the sight of her beneath him is enough to send him over the edge immediately, and he drops into her neck and spills into the condom with a loud groan.

She doesn’t release her hold on him completely for another few moments, and he takes his time pulling off of her. She feels him roughly panting into her ear and on her skin, in a different rhythm than her own hard breaths, and is suddenly aware of their chests pressing together and the sweat clinging between them.

Taking glances at each other again, he leans back from her and starts crawling down while she loosens her arms wrapped around him. Her hands drop and he slowly pulls out of her, kneeling up and away to start sliding off the condom. She falls back, catching her breath again, still lying on the couch, while he sits off the edge of it in his boxers, tucking himself in and knotting the condom.

She looks up again as he reaches to the floor for his pants, and notices the second condom that fell from his pocket earlier. “You brought another one,” she says while he slips the used one into his pants. 

“Yeah, that was in case I fucked up with the first one.” He turns to her with a vague smile. Then he goes back to picking up his pants and starts pulling them on. “Why? Unless you wanted to go another round?” There’s a joking quirk in his eyes when he looks at her again.

She gives him a smile. “Maybe some other time.”

“Some other time?” he asks, refastening his belt. “You mean you would do it again?”

The corners of her lips turn up. “Yeah. Maybe.”

He just laughs, and then, after zipping himself up, goes to get his shirts to start slipping them on. While he does that, she finally moves, heading over to first grab all her clothes in a pile, and then returns to sit on the couch and put them on.

He gets done before she does, and sighs as he takes a seat on the floor, leaning back against the couch by her while she slowly redresses with a melancholy air about her. He zones out himself, the careworn look returning to his face. Then he says in a flat voice, “That was so awesome that I totally forgot about the dead freaks trying to kill us outside.”

She pauses, and then says as she starts pulling the sleeves of her Oxford onto her arms with sincerity in her voice, “We’re gonna be okay, Ron.”

He doesn’t respond from where he’s sitting, eyes glazed over and staring forward with a sobered demeanor.

She stops again once the shirt is on her shoulders. “We are,” she says firmly. “Your mom, your brother. We’re all gonna be okay.”

He still doesn’t reply, just keeps looking off to the drawn blinds of the front windows.

“You have to believe that,” she says, voice dropping. They’re close enough that her knee is almost touching his arm. “Promise me you’ll try to believe that.” Her tone is soft and earnest.

When he doesn’t reply again, JJ repeats herself. “Promise?”

He sighs and turns his head towards her, before looking forward again. “Okay,” he says.

“Okay,” she concedes, now reaching to start redoing the buttons of her shirt.

“Besides,” she says cheekily a moment later, nudging his shoulder with her knee, “we still have to use that other condom. _After_ we make it out of this.”

He lets out a serious-sounding scoff, but appreciates the trick she’s playing.

“All right?” JJ asks, nudging him again, her hands now fastening her top buttons.

“All right,” he says. She nods, and then stands up, and steps a few feet forward, until she turns to wait for him.

Ron sighs, yet again, pushing himself up off the floor, and then the two of them are heading back to the front door together, her leading the way, Ron just two feet behind her. As JJ reaches for the handle to open the door, Ron’s mind wanders to everything he doesn’t want it to. He can’t help but get caught up in all the swirling unknowns that surround their lives these days.

But he’s still walking next to her, side by side now, down the walkway and across the grass, under the hot afternoon sun. They’re still in the outskirts of the town, away from the main streets, and Ron’s thoughts go to reaching for her shoulder, maybe trying for a last kiss, or just reaching for her hand. But he knows she wouldn’t like that. He wonders why he even considers it. And he’s uncomfortable with how disappointed it makes him feel, as if he’s falling for her already.

He quickly squelches that feeling down. That’s the last thing he needs, in a world where there’s nothing but killers outside the walls _and_ killers in their town.

That reminds him of Carl, and he finally remembers the conversation when he blew him off earlier. He can’t figure out why Carl’s hassling him so much lately. What’s so important that he’s going to stalk Ron’s house just to talk to him about it?

There’s only one thing he knows for certain, as he takes a glance at JJ, as she walks along stoically beside him, out of the corner of his eye. And that is that he’ll be losing it to his hand tonight, to the memory of how she looked when she came beneath him.


End file.
